Wimbledon’s five-match unbeaten run in London Division One South came to an end on Saturday at Beverley Meads after a 16-23 defeat to Cobham.

But having dominated possession, many of the Wimbledon players wondered afterwards how they lost this game.

That the game was played at all was due to the efforts of the Wimbledon members who swept most of the surface water off the pitch, but the conditions were awful and it is a credit to both sides that they attempted to play expansive rugby.

Unfortunately for Wimbledon, such play cost them two tries, completely against the run of play.

Having conceded an early try from Cobham’s hooker Hutton after a lineout 10m from their own line, Dons’ pack took them to within 5m of Cobham’s line, only for a scoring pass to be intercepted by the Cobham centre.

Rather you than me: Alex Crane in the thick of the action

A great chase by scrum half Rhys Morgan stopped the centre on half way, but fellow centre Hargy was in support and had a free run in under the posts - Farrelly’s conversion put Cobham 12-0 ahead.

The rest of the half belonged to Wimbledon, with lock Jack Fishwick and flanker Rob Tait cleaning up in the lineout and the front row of Nanai, Nathan Kemp, Pete Wallace and Ben Davies forcing their opposite numbers to concede a string of penalties.

Dons’ captain Neil Hallett brought the hosts back into contention with three well-struck penalty goals.

However, just after the break, a rare Cobham penalty gave Farrelly the chance to extend his team’s lead to 15-9, adding a further three points early in the second half.

Apart from an opening period of pressure from the Cobham pack, the second half was again dominated by Wimbledon and when flanker Karl Roche burst through from a ruck 15m from Cobham’s line to score a deserved try, the difference was just four points – then two points after fly-half Bryan Croke converted.

Moving forward: William Elbourne takes on the Cobham defence

But try as they might, Wimbledon could not break Cobham’s defence and what turned out to be their final attack of the game summed up their effort.

A good backs move ended with a fumble on half way, booted on by Farrelly, who outpaced the hastily retreating Dons’ defence to score in the corner.

His missed conversion did at least give Wimbledon a losing bonus point.